Israelis look at a crater caused by a rocket outside a shop in Ashdod, on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, Wednesday, July 9, 2014 (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A rocket launched from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, Wednesday, July 9, 2014 (photo credit: Avishag Shaar Yeshuv/Flash90)

Damage caused by a missile strike in Ashdod on July 8, 2014. (photo credit: AFP/DAVID BUIMOVITCH)

Smoke and debris rise after an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A soldier stands in a field near the Gaza border with IDF APCs (Armed Personnel Carriers) in the background, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israeli police inspect the site where a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza, hit in the area of Ramat Raziel, near Jerusalem. July 8, 2014. (photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Shoppers watch TV broadcasts about the offensive Israel launched against the Gaza Strip, with a series of airstrikes in response to increasing rocket attacks fired into Israel. July 08, 2014. (photo credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

IDF APCs (Armed Personnel Carriers) are seen near the Gaza border in southern Israel on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A Palestinian man removes a piece of furniture from the rubble of a home which police said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, in the northern of Gaza Strip on July 9 2014. (photo credit: AFP/MOHAMMED ABED)

The second day of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge saw intensified Israeli air strikes on Gaza, and Hamas rockets fired 120 kilometers to Zichron Ya’akov. The Times of Israel liveblogged a day of dramatic developments as they unfolded. June 10’s liveblog is here.

Top Obama adviser lambastes Israel over Palestinian policies

President Barack Obama’s top Middle East aide launched a blistering attack on Israeli foreign policy last night in Tel Aviv — in a speech that he happened to deliver just as Hamas was targeting the city and points even further north.

White House coordinator for the Middle East Philip Gordon speaks at the Israel Conference on Peace in Tel Aviv, July 8, 2014 (photo credit: screen shot haaretz.co.il)

Philip Gordon, a special assistant to Obama and the White House coordinator for the Middle East, appealed to Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make the compromises needed to reach a permanent peace agreement. Jerusalem “should not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate” such a treaty with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has proven to be a reliable partner, Gordon said.

“Israel confronts an undeniable reality: It cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. Doing so is not only wrong but a recipe for resentment and recurring instability,” Gordon said. “It will embolden extremists on both sides, tear at Israel’s democratic fabric and feed mutual dehumanization.”

He promised: “The United States will always have Israel’s back. That’s why we fight for it every day at the United Nations. But as Israel’s greatest friend and strongest defender, Washington should be allowed to ask some fundamental questions.

Specifically, Gordon went on: “How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank? How will it have peace if it’s unwilling to delineate a border, end the occupation and allow for Palestinian sovereignty, security and dignity? How will we prevent other states from supporting Palestinian efforts in international bodies, if Israel is not seen as committed to peace?”

Israeli planes, ships strike Gaza targets

Israeli planes and ships are bombarding targets across the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian media reports. According to unconfirmed reports, a strike in the southern city of Rafah near the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip damaged houses on the Egyptian side of the border.

In the past 24 hours, since Operation Protective Edge began early Tuesday morning, the Israeli Air Force has struck approximately 270 targets in the Gaza Strip, including the homes of major Hamas military commanders.

EU condemns Israeli-Palestinian violence

The European Union’s foreign affairs office issues a condemnation of rocket fire targeting Israeli citizens and the IDF’s retaliation against the Gaza Strip.

“We are following with grave concern the rapidly deteriorating situation in the South of Israel and the Gaza Strip,” the spokesperson says. “The EU deplores the growing number of civilian casualties, reportedly among them children, caused by Israeli retaliatory fire.”

“The safety and security of all civilians must be of paramount importance.”

Brussels calls on both sides to exercise restraint to avoid casualties and work toward a ceasefire to end hostilities.

Egypt to open border crossing for injured Palestinians

The Egyptian government announces that the Rafah border crossing will be opened Wednesday to allow a limited number of injured Gazans to receive medical treatment in Egypt. Cairo has yet to announce how many Palestinians will be allowed into the Sinai Peninsula, or what time the border crossing will open.

Gaza health officials say over 150 Palestinians have been injured in Israeli airstrikes since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge.

Arab League calls for Security Council meeting on Gaza

The Arab League has called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on the crisis between Israel and Gaza.

An official from the pan-Arab bloc told AFP that Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi had “instructed the Arab League’s UN representative to initiate urgent consultations within the Arab group calling for an emergency security meeting of the Security Council.”

Arabi said he had been “in touch with president Abbas to follow the latest developments in the Gaza Strip” while also continuing “consultations with Arab foreign ministers on this subject.”

He denounced the “dangerous Israeli escalation” and warned against its humanitarian consequences in Gaza.

“The continued attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israel is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention and international resolutions on occupied Palestine,” said the Arab League chief.

Air raid sirens break early morning calm in south

As day breaks over Israel, air raid sirens sound in communities near the southern city of Beersheba, home to nearly 200,000.

Early morning reports say sirens went off in the town of Metar and the Lakia, Sdot Negev and Sha’ar Hanegev regions of southern Israel. At least one explosion was reported near Beersheba and another near the town of Netivot.

Eight Palestinians hurt in airstrikes on Gaza

Palestinian news outlets report that eight Palestinians were injured in two Israeli strikes on two houses in the city of Gaza belonging to Hamas members who infiltrated Israel on Tuesday. The families reportedly received notification to evacuate their houses before the IDF attacked.

Videos show horrors of conflict

Behind the numbers, real terror is being felt in both Gaza and Israel as fighting wears on. Videos and pictures proliferating on social media and elsewhere on the Internet try to capture the horrors of the conflict, especially among civilians.

This video, from the Associated Press, shows Gazans running from an air strike and then attempting rescue operations.

Meanwhile, Israeli on Facebook and Twitter have been sharing this video from a wedding interrupted by a rocket siren Wednesday night.

Some 25 Gazans have been killed in the fighting thus far. Israel, armed with better protective measures, has suffered a few minor injuries among civilians and soldiers.

Sirens in Ashkelon, near Gaza

‘Gaza has dozens more rockets that hit Hadera’

The likely firing of an M-302 rocket Tuesday night at Hadera, a city situated some 116 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, is being seen by the army as likely the most significant event amid the flurry of launches over the last 24 hours.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner tells the Times of Israel that the M-302, generally made in Syria, was one of the sorts of rockets found on the Iranian arms ship Clos-C, which was intercepted by Israeli forces in March. Israel said the ship was headed for Gaza from Iran, though the UN said it was headed for Sudan.

Although those rockets were seized at sea, it is now clear that others of its kind managed to cross into Gaza. “Our assessment is that there are [dozens] more of these rockets in Gaza,” he says.

Additionally the Israeli army on Tuesday targeted 120 concealed rocket launchers, 10 command and control structures – which also serve as the homes of regional Hamas commanders – and six government buildings, including a navy facility and Hamas’ national security ministry building, the army said.

The conscripted Nahal Brigade, relieved by incoming reservists, will join the forces on the Gaza border Wednesday, Lerner says, “in preparation for a possible ground operation.”

Tuesday evening also saw an additional explosion in a Hamas tunnel near Kerem Shalom. Lerner says that the reason for the explosion is unclear and that the infrastructure and components necessary for a terror attack were apparently ready within the tunnel.

The army, he says, believes that the tunnel discovered last night is linked to the tunnel in which seven Hamas operatives were killed on Monday morning.

Three rockets hit near Eshkol, damage cars

Two rockets explode in a town in the Eshkol Regional Council which sits on the border with Gaza. Another lands in Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. Vehicles are damaged in the attack, news site Ynet reports.

Livni says all options on the table

Map shows Hamas rocket ranges

Hamas’s arsenal features rockets of varying ranges, reaching as far as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. This AP graphic maps it out, though it does not include the M-302, which can apparently reach well north of Tel Aviv and possibly as far as the Haifa area.

Thursday’s Woodstock Revival postponed

Due to the security situation, the city of Jerusalem and the Homefront Command instruct organizers of the Jerusalem Woodstock Revival that the event cannot take place Thursday as scheduled at the Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem, according to event organizer Steve Leibowitz.

The event is rescheduled for August 21.

Thursday was to mark the sixth annual Woodstock, when local musicians pay tribute to the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and other iconic musicians of the period.

The now-annual summer event is a beloved “throwback festival,” said organizer Nadia Levene, and is sponsored by the Jerusalem Municipality, Times of Israel, Haaretz, HP, and others.

Hamas dedicates fire on TA to slain Egyptian soldiers

Hamas says it dedicates the rocket fire on Tel Aviv and the Gush Dan region to the 16 Egyptian soldiers killed in the August 2012 attack in which Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists commandeered two Egyptian armored vehicles before attempting to cross into Israel.

The attackers were stopped by the IDF and the air force, and several terrorists were killed. At least 16 Egyptian soldiers — some reports spoke of 20 — were killed and seven injured by the terrorists at the start of the attempted infiltration, which began with an armed assault on an Egyptian military position on the border.

After gunning down the Egyptian soldiers, the terrorists commandeered the two Egyptian vehicles, and tried to smash through the border into Israel at the Kerem Shalom crossing, reportedly firing as they moved. The first vehicle was said to have exploded on the Egyptian side of the border crossing. The second vehicle moved towards Israel and the IAF blew it up. Conflicting initial reports spoke of three to six terrorists who were killed by Israeli army troops, the Army Spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad rocket launcher targeted — IDF

Palestinian media report one person was killed and one injured in the strike on a motorbike in Beit Lahiyeh in the northern strip. Ma’an news named Rafiq al-Kafarna as the fatality, quoting Gaza’s health ministry.

The army says in a statement that Diyfallah was a “known Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist responsible for firing rockets at Israel.”

IDF releases M-302 threat graphic

The IDF spokesman’s office circulates a graphic showing the range of the M-302 rocket, thought to have been the projectile that hit the northern city of Hadera Tuesday night.

Hamas’s long-range rockets, capable of striking Tel Aviv and beyond, include Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets — built in Iran in segments in order to facilitate smuggling and for the express use of a terror organization — or self-made M-75s. Tal Inbar of the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies describes the M-75 as a 133mm rocket equipped with a 90-kilogram warhead.

According to Brig. Gen. Itay Brun, military intelligence’s top analyst, there are several hundred of these sorts of rockets in Gaza.

The Grad rockets, of which Hamas has thousands, carry a smaller warhead, up to 20 kilograms, and have a maximum range of roughly 40 kilometers. They are factory-made, Inbar says, and are equipped with a fragmentation warhead.

In the past 24 hours, Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem & other major cities. M302 can strike most of Israel pic.twitter.com/fHJgGsVT7V

Israel calling Gaza civilians to warn of strikes, says NY Times

As it did during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9 and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, Israel is calling Palestinian civilians in Gaza to warn them minutes before airstrikes, according to the New York Times.

Israel has also been taking other measures like firing a flare at the building beforehand.

A Palestinian man removes a piece of furniture from the rubble of a home which police said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, in the northern of Gaza Strip on July 9 2014. (photo credit: AFP/MOHAMMED ABED)

Palestinians have tried forming human shields to prevent the Israeli Air Force from bombing buildings, the NY Times reported.

Michael Oren posts pic of stopped Tel Aviv traffic

Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren was among the commuters who were forced to stop their cars Wednesday morning on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Freeway because of Gaza rocket fire. He posts a picture on Facebook of the scene.

“All the cars stopped–many of them under a bridge–but the passengers got out to take pictures. We heard the booms–three rockets intercepted by Iron Dome,” Oren writes. “Then we all got back in our cars and drove to work.”

Official says world not interested in Gaza op

Despite several statements by world leaders, the international community currently doesn’t really care about Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, a senior diplomatic official tells The Times of Israel.

“The international community is totally disinterested. Yes, there were a few press releases from [UK Foreign Secretary] William Hague and a few others, but generally the world doesn’t show any particular interest in this,” the official says. “They’re either very tired of this, or their attention is elsewhere or they want to go a summer vacation and don’t think this story is important enough.”

Most people are exhausted with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because they have “seen it again and again,” the officials adds. “Much worse is happening in the region, and people saw that we were attacked by Hamas rockets.”

‘No Hamas commander has a home to return to’

“There is not one Hamas brigade commander left who has a home to return to,” a senior IDF officer said, according to Ynet.

Israel struck at least one Hamas commander’s home Tuesday. According to Israel Radio, a number of locals had earlier positioned themselves on the roof of the home to try and act as human shields against an Israeli attack.

Two rockets hit Eshkol region

Ya’alon says operation will be expanded in coming days

Operation Protective Edge will be expanded in the near future, says Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

“The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the prices the organization will be will be very heavy,” he says.

Ya’alon makes his comments after a security assessment with the Shin Bet and IDF.

“We are continuing with attacks that are extracting a high price from Hamas,” he says. “We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructure, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, administration buildings, and terrorists’ homes, and are killing terrorists in various command positions.”

“No target has immunity,” the prime minister tells the troops. The army will attack Hamas operatives, infrastructure and tunnels more forcefully than yesterday, the official says, adding that Netanyahu wants to prepare the Israeli people for what could be a long campaign. “It’s not ‘bang, and we’re done,’” the official says.

MK Deri says ‘We must cut off head of snake’

“A sovereign state cannot allow for a bunch of terrorists to run its life; we must cut off the head of the snake and for every Hamas man to know that his blood is upon his head,” tweets Shas party leader Aryeh Deri.

Aryeh Deri (photo credit: Oren Nahshon/Flash90)

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah used similar language about Iran in 2008, urging the US in a cable to “cut off the head of the snake” and destroy Iran’s nuclear program. The comments came to light on the Wikileaks whistle-blowing website.

Abbas’s Fatah says it shares goals with Hamas, PIJ

Fatah, the party led by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, says on its Facebook page today that Fatah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad all share the same goal, Palestinian Media Watch reports.

“One God, one homeland, one enemy, one goal,” reads the page. It also says that the three movements are “brothers in arms.”

The post also shows three masked fighters, with the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque in the background.

MK Danon calls for end of fuel, electricity supply to Gaza

Hard-line Likud MK Danny Danon says Israel should “stop the supply of electricity and fuel to the Gaza Strip immediately. It cannot be that on the one hand we fight Hamas, and on the other hand we transfer electricity and fuel for the transport of missiles launched at Israeli cities.”

“In the campaign against Hamas, we need to use all the levers we have in our hands in order to make it ask for a ceasefire,” he continues.

Explosion heard in Sha’ar Hanegev area

IDF releases Navy footage of Zikim attack

In newly-released footage of Tuesday’s foiled attack on Zikim by Hamas naval commandoes, viewers can see the incident from the point of view of a Navy camera.

The clip shows gunfire coming from the ship as the terrorists run along the beach. Tense conversations over the ship’s radio can be heard as well, identifying one of the operatives popping up from behind a bush and running south before being hit.

The Hamas operatives were on their way to one of the bases in the area or toward the community of Zikim, a kibbutz.

Footage of the attack from land-based observation cameras was released Tuesday night.

Tuesday’s video shows a pair of Hamas gunmen firing their weapons, probably at the Israeli army infantry forces that first engaged them — the soldier on the right can be seen unjamming his weapon — and then running for their lives as an air force helicopter fires upon them.

Five Hamas men, reportedly naval commandos, were killed in the aborted infiltration attempt.

Hamas says Israel has hit Gaza over 500 times

Hamas’s interior ministry in the Gaza says that Israel’s army and air force have struck the coastal strip more than 500 times.

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes.

Smoke and debris rise after an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border on the second day of Operation Protective Edge, Wednesday, July 9, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Fire breaks out after strikes south of Haifa

PM says operation will expand until rockets stop

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to “intensify even further” the military operation against Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. “The IDF is prepared for any option,” he says, stopping short of announcing a ground invasion into the strip.

“Hamas will pay a heavy price for firing at Israeli citizens The security of Israel’s citizens is first and foremost. Our army is strong, the home front firm and our nation united. This combination is our response to the terrorist organizations that seek to hurt us,” the prime minister says in Beersheba, where he held security-related deliberations with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Sami Turgeman, the IDF’s southern command chief.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks as he chairs the weekly cabinet meeting on July 6, 2014 at his Jerusalem office. (AFP/Pool/Gali Tibbon)

“We are all united in the mission to hit the terrorists and restore calm,” Netanyahu says. “The operation will expand and continue until the rocket fire on our cities stops and quiet returns.”

The prime minister urges the public to continue following the Home Front Command’s instructions – “they save lives,” he says.

Sirens sound in Beit Shemesh

Islamic Jihad operative said killed in Gaza

Palestinian sources report that a commander in the Islamic Jihad is assassinated, after the IDF targets his home in the northern Gaza Strip. According to Channel 10, five of his family members are killed in the airstrike as well.

The Israeli aircraft also hit a house belonging to a senior member of Hamas’s armed wing. It remains unclear if there were any casualties in that attack.

Turkey condemns Operation Protective Edge

“Israel is dropping bombs, civilians are dying and some still claim ‘we are impartial on the Palestinian issue,'” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, in an apparent rebuke relating to a lack of international response to the Israeli operation.

Hamas committing war crimes, Netanyahu says

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to ask for their support for Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.

No country in the world would agree to be under constant rocket fire and have terrorists infiltrate their territory via the sea and through tunnels, Netanyahu tells the leaders, according to a statement released by his office.

“Hamas is committing a double war crime when it tries to hurt Israeli civilians and utilizes the Gazan civilian population as a human shield,” Netanyahu says. Therefore, Hamas is responsible for their own civilian casualties, he tells the foreign leaders.

Hamas is recognized as a terrorist group, “and thus it is upon the international community to forcefully condemn the ongoing rocket fire on Israeli cities by Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” Netanyahu says.

In coming days, Netanyahu plans similar conversations with additional world leaders.

Tomorrow, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is scheduled to give a briefing about the military operation to foreign ambassadors serving in Israel. His spokesman, Tzachi Moshe, refuses to say whether Liberman has spoken to any of his counterparts in foreign capitals since the operation started.

‘Ground offensive may happen quite soon’

In an interview with CNN, President Shimon Peres says a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip “may happen quite soon.”

“If they won’t stop the missiles, there will be a ground attack. I’m not going to tell you when and where. But that’s the logic[al] conclusion.”

“Whatever we can do without ground forces, we shall do. So we waited. We didn’t start a war today, they started it already several days ago. And they continue and they spread the fire on more areas in Israel,” he says.

Northern cities told to open bomb shelters

End the occupation or Haifa will explode, Mashaal says

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal calls for the end of the Israeli airstrikes, and says Israeli citizens have Netanyahu to blame for the rocket barrage.

He calls for “the end of the aggression and the bombings immediately — the time has come to end the occupation. You, the Israelis: Go out and condemn Netanyahu and his extremist government because of whom you are in the shelters.”

“Until the occupation ends, Haifa will explode,” he says.

Mashaal adds the murders of the three Israeli teenagers “was the starting point for Netanyahu, as if the occupation, the settlement, and the closure are not a blatant violation of Palestinian rights.”

But each intercept costs a fair amount of money, he’s asked. Correct, he says, but Iron Dome calculates if the rocket fire is heading for a residential area, and doesn’t intercept unless there’s a risk of that.

Thus, while Hamas has fired 170 rockets into Israel, he says, Iron Dome has only launched to intercept a small fraction of them.

A ‘growing sense’ Israel headed for ground offensive

Channel 2’s diplomatic correspondent reports there is a “growing sense” that Israel is being dragged toward a ground offensive. He quotes an unnamed senior source saying “we can’t on for long with these tit-for-tat Hamas rocket strikes and Israeli air attacks.”

He says people in Netanyahu’s circle are “starting to talk about an incursion into Gaza to try to strip Hamas of its terrorist infrastructure.”

Is this possible, Segal asks? And answers yes. Will it cost a heavy price? Yes, again.

But both Israel and Hamas, he concludes, are now saying they are not prepared to go back to the understandings that preceded this conflict.

Hamas vows to resume suicide bombings

In four separate videos broadcast in Hebrew on Al Aqsa TV, Hamas threatens to resume suicide bombings in Israeli cities and urges Israel to “count its coffins.”

The video statements are as follows, according to Palestinian Media Watch:

“Zionists, wait and see terror attacks, stabbing everywhere. Wait for suicide attacks on every bus, café and street. Wait for the rage and for revenge for Gaza, wait for the flames of the West Bank, inside you.”

“Zionists, [we] can reach you above ground and below it. So start counting the number of coffins you’ll need in these months.”

“Zionists, do you still remember the rockets that made Tel-Aviv and the Israeli Parliament tremble? We just wanted to tell you that we have thousands of them.”

“Zionists, the resistance has many goals, it has the ability to reach places you thought were safe. Look, they [the rockets] are on their way to you, now they will reach you soon.”

Both sides acting like children, Desmond Tutu says

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu lashes out at Israeli and Palestinian leaders for behaving “like children,” seeking to blame each other for the latest bloody conflagration in the long-running conflict.

“Once again, the people of Israel and Palestine are embroiled in a deadly contest of tit-for-tat violence in which there can never be victors, only losers,” the South African cleric says in a statement.

“Like children following a playground dust-up, political and religious leaders fall over each other, not to make peace, but to proclaim: It wasn’t us, they started it.”

“The world is looking to Israelis and Palestinians to be bigger than themselves; to act now, before any more children are harmed,” says Tutu.

IDF clip shows Palestinian human shields

The IDF releases footage documenting Gazans acting as human shields to prevent an Israeli airstrike. In the video, the IDF fires a warning shot at a building. Immediately afterwards, dozens of Palestinians are spotted going up on the roof to hamper a military raid.

Spoof ADL ad on Gaza goes viral

An image parodying an ADL advertisement on Hamas goes viral on Twitter, after creator Daniel Sieradski revises the text and image to refer to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Compare the original and the spoof below.

Hamas toys with Israelis’ psyche

Hamas is waging war on the psyche of the Israeli public.

That is the root of terrorism: the spread of fear. The rockets, though, with Iron Dome operating at a reported 90 percent success rate, have been somewhat defanged. Hence the effort to dig tunnels, scarring the consciousness of many residents of the border region with the constant scratch of shovels, and, for the second straight night, an attempt to execute a naval infiltration in which frogmen, emerging on Israeli shores from a choppy sea, raid a civilian community.

Thus far, the army has managed to stifle these attempts thanks to a combination of intelligence, alertness, and technology — both infiltration attempts were thwarted by female surveillance operators in the border region — but Hamas, it seems, will continue to try.

ABC News conflates Israelis, Palestinians

In its coverage of Operation Protective Edge, ABC News mistakes Palestinian residents of Gaza for Israelis. Over transposed images of buildings reduced to rubble by Israeli airstrikes in the Strip, anchor Diane Sawyer says: “Here an Israeli family trying to salvage what they can,” and “One woman standing speechless among the ruins.”

Five reported killed in Khan Younis airstrike

Reports out of Gaza say that an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis killed at least five. Some reports indicate that the bombing hit a cafe with spectators watching the World Cup match between Argentina and the Netherlands. At least another 10 Palestinians were reported injured.

Moments before, the IDF reported that the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets over the southern town of Kiryat Malachi.

Six arrested in Amman anti-Israel protest

Jordanian police are reportedly cracking down on an anti-Israel protest outside the Israeli embassy in Amman. Six demonstrators have been arrested.

According to the Jordan Times, dozens of protesters gathered outside the embassy in the Jordanian capital and attempted to storm the building. The paper says that the demonstration was organized by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The protesters called for shuttering the Israeli embassy and expelling the ambassador, “customary demands” since the 1994 peace agreement, the paper reports.

Images of the police crackdown are circulating on Twitter and other social media.

Jordanian police crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters near the Israeli embassy in Amman. Arrests reported pic.twitter.com/37SdeZj7AZ

The end of Day Two

We’ll end this liveblog of Day 2 of Operation Protective Shield at this point — a day of extended and extensive Hamas rocket strikes, and an Israeli vow to intensify the attacks on Hamas until it will no longer fire on Israel. Our June 10 liveblog will be opening up with our colleague Ilan Ben-Zion o-to-to — very soon. Goodnight.

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